SBIR Phase I: Compact Power-Stack and Packaged Power Module

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发模块化电源子系统(电源组)，使新一代电源逆变器能够紧凑、可重复使用、可升级、对芯片供应短缺具有弹性，并且可以更快、更便宜地制造。随着世界转向清洁能源以及工业、交通和家庭的进一步电气化，对电力转换器的需求越来越大。清洁能源的广泛采用要求这些转换器简单、可扩展、可靠且具有成本效益。今天的设计对于终端客户和变流器供应商来说都不方便，因为它们通常是：复杂、大型、笨重、僵化、昂贵和上市缓慢。目前的逆变器往往只由几家专业公司制造，对于缺乏经验的进入者来说，技术门槛很高。此外，目前的逆变器仅限于功率芯片供应商，这使得扩大规模和重复使用具有挑战性。拟议的项目将开发和测试一种新的方法，使逆变器能够满足新的市场需求。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目旨在开发一种新的方法来解决电力转换问题。高功率半导体开关的高速运行通常会产生大量热量。与现有技术相比，提出的创新之处在于将电隔离点从邻近功率芯片移动到邻近冷却剂，并将电源路径、控制路径和热路径大规模集成到可扩展的构建块中。另一个优势是能够开发新的制造工艺，以可靠地构建和集成这些模块。该项目的成果可能是一种设计和制造方法，其结果是开发时间和开发成本减少了50%，重量和尺寸减少了80%，每单位成本减少了100-200美元，提高了可扩展性，并提高了对模具供应短缺的弹性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of modular power sub-systems (power-stacks) that will enable a new generation of power inverters that are compact, re-usable, upgradable, resilient against die-supply shortages, and can be manufactured faster and cheaper. As the world migrates to sources of clean energy and the further electrification of industry, transportation, and homes, there is a significant and growing demand for electric power converters. Widespread adoption of clean energy requires that these converters be simple, scalable, reliable, and cost-effective. Today's designs are inconvenient both for end customers and for converter suppliers, as they typically are: complex, large, heavy, inflexible, expensive, and slow to market. Current inverter are often made by only a few specialized companies and have high technical barriers to entry for inexperienced entrants. Additionally, current inverters are locked to power-die suppliers, making scale-up and re-use challenging. The proposed project will develop and test a novel approach to enable inverters to meet new market demands.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a novel approach to power conversion problems. High speed operation of high-power semiconductor switches typically generates significant heat. The novelty of the proposed innovation over current technologies resides in moving the point of electrical isolation from adjacent to the power-die to adjacent to the coolant, and massively integrating the power path, the control path and thermal path into scalable building blocks. An additional advantage is the ability to develop new manufacturing processes to build and integrate these blocks reliably. The outcomes of this project may be a design and manufacturing approach that results in 50% reduced development time and development cost, 80% lower weight and size, a $100-$200 per unit cost reduction, increased scalability, and improved resilience to die-supply shortages.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.